India, Sept. 23 -- Childhood cancer is a disease no child should ever have to face. Yet, the reality is sobering: around four lakh children worldwide are diagnosed with cancer every year, and nearly 20% of these cases come from India. Awareness is the first step to changing outcomes.

This is the most common and often the hardest question to answer. Unlike adult cancers, there are no proven lifestyle or environmental factors that cause cancer in children. Nearly 90% of childhood cancers are sporadic, meaning they happen randomly and can affect any child. Less than 10% are linked to inherited genetic changes. This is also the reason why childhood cancer cannot be screened like breast cancer or cervical cancer.

While people often wonder if...